February 3, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s gross domestic product per capita is estimated to have surpassed the $36,000 mark in 2024, outpacing its economic peers such as Japan and Taiwan, according to IMF estimates from October, released by the government Sunday.
The country’s GDP per capita in 2024 is estimated to have reached $36,024, rising by $454 or 1.28 percent on-year, according to the data from the Finance Ministry, Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea.
GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the total GDP by the population as provided by national statistics data, and convert the figure to dollars based on average won-dollar exchange rate.
The figure stood at $30,839 in 2016 and $35,359 in 2018 but fell to $33,503 in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In 2021, it reached $37,503, backed by the recovery in exports, but later dipped to $34,810 the following year before recovering to $35,570 in 2023.
Though the country’s GDP per capita has risen for two years, the on-year increase fell from 2.18 percent in 2023 to 1.28 percent in 2024.
Yet, the $36,024 estimate suggests Korea has surpassed peers Japan and Taiwan.
In October, the International Monetary Fund forecasted Japan’s GDP per capita to drop to $32,859 in 2024, down 3.1 percent on-year and Taiwan to record a figure of $33,234 for last year, recording an increase of 2.6 percent from the year before. With the estimates, it projected Korea’s GDP per capita to rise this year to $36,132, marking a 1.6 percent rise.
The growth of nominal GDP, which measures a country’s economic output without adjusting for inflation, could have been a factor that led to the rise in GDP per capita, according to local reports.
Korea’s nominal GDP grew by 5.9 percent last year, marking the sharpest gain since the 7.9 percent growth in 2021, according to government data.
However, the strong dollar has limited the growth of the GDP per capita. The yearly average of the won’s value against the dollar was 1,363.98 in 2024, marking a depreciation of 58.57 won from the year before. If the won’s valuation against the dollar had stayed at 1,305.41, at the level of 2023, the GDP per capita in 2024 would have reached $37,641.
If the nominal GDP grows by 3.8 percent this year as has been projected by the government, and the won-dollar currency stays at the level of 2024, GDP per capita for this year would in that case reach $37,441, rising by $1,417.
According to the October estimates, IMF projected Korea’s GDP per capita to surpass the $40,000 mark in coming years, reaching $41,031 in 2027.